by Erika Wilde
“Oh, and I’ll take your cell phone for safe-keeping,” Gavin said, eyeing the device she still held in her hand, which she reluctantly handed over, leaving her with no means to contact the outside world.
She heard shuffling on the stairs, then her father appeared and stepped into the living room. His hair was in disarray around his head, his face was pale and drawn, and his eyes held a wealth of remorse as they met hers. His normally neat and pressed clothes were a rumpled mess. Her heart leapt into her throat. Good God, how long had he been down there?
“Dad!” she cried out and rushed to him, pulling him into her embrace, hating that he felt so frail in her arms. Despite everything, he was still her father and she loved him. “What’s going on?” she asked, once she was looking into his eyes again.
Her father glared at the other man in the room, who oh so casually kept his gun directed their way. “Gavin is on a bit of a power trip. He seems to think that taking out Maddux is going to make the investigation of Addingwell Financial and the organization disappear.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Gavin said with a shrug. “But killing Maddux will give me a great sense of satisfaction. He’s been a fucking thorn in our side for years, the condescending bastard. Now, as for the two of you, move over to those wooden chairs, and Arabella, take one of those plastic zip ties and secure your father’s feet together, then his hands. Once that’s done, sit down in the other chair and do your own feet.”
With the weapon still in Gavin’s hand, along with his growing agitation, Arabella didn’t argue. She knelt in front of her father and secured his ankles with shaking hands before doing his wrists, too.
“Are you okay?” she asked in concern as she worked at her task. “Is your heart good?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Gavin interrupted in an annoyed tone as he waved the gun in the air. “Your old man already had an angina attack when I first brought him here. Luckily he has his nitroglycerin pills on him, or he might have died.”
Gavin sounded like he didn’t care one way or another, and Arabella wondered when he’d gotten so coldhearted. He’d always been an arrogant jerk, but this callous man was one she’d never seen or encountered before, and she’d be lying if she said that his apathetic attitude didn’t scare her. Especially since he was drinking and had a gun in his hand. God only knew what he had planned.
“I’m good, Arabella,” her father said in a low voice, and still on her knees in front of him, Arabella lifted her gaze to his weary, pain-filled eyes as he spoke. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted you to get caught up in all this. I always tried to keep my job separate from our relationship because I never wanted you to think any less of me.”
She had no response to that as she sat in her own chair and tightened the strip of plastic around her ankles as instructed while Gavin watched to make sure she didn’t leave the ties too loose. Did she think any less of her father? The question was a deeply agonizing one, because while she’d once put him up on a pedestal, he’d definitely taken a long fall from grace in her eyes just on the basis of who he worked for and what he did for a living. Her father was involved with the mafia, and she could only imagine the illegal activities he’d been involved in—most of which had probably funded his gambling addiction and the debt that had snowballed. Not to mention what he’d done to make the Wilder siblings hate him so much.
As soon as Gavin secured her hands, Arabella placed them on her lap and glanced at her father, whose head hung in shame. “Is it true that you killed Maddux’s parents?” she asked. The question came out on a raw rasp, and she was so afraid to hear the answer, even though she already knew the truth in her gut.
Her dad met her gaze, a flicker of regret in the depths. “It was an accident.”
“It wasn’t a fucking accident!” Gavin refuted with a deranged laugh. “Tell her the truth, Theodore. You ordered me to set that grease fire that night at the diner, knowing full well that Maddux’s mother was in the back office, and Maddux and his father were on their way to the restaurant to pick her up after closing time.”
Her father shook his head. “It was just meant to scare them so they’d pay what they owed me,” he said defensively. “They weren’t supposed to die.”
Was he honestly trying to justify their deaths? “Paid what they owed you?” Arabella repeated incredulously, recalling what Hunter had told her earlier that had prompted her to run. “You extorted money from them and from other businesses.”
“That’s what we do, Arabella,” Gavin said with a shrug. “The organization gets a percentage, and we get a nice little cut to supplement our income. And if we have to get our hands dirty every so often to keep everyone in line, then so be it.”
“That’s disgusting.” And so heartbreaking, when she thought of all the people her father and Gavin had hurt, swindled . . . or killed. Her mouth grew dry and her stomach pitched with nausea.
“Yeah, well, as cozy as this kumbaya moment is, you’re both wasting my time. Now, all we’re missing is the guest of honor to this fun little party,” he said, an eager gleam in eyes. “As soon as Maddux knows I’ve kidnapped you, it’ll just be a matter of a very short time before he arrives to save his precious Bella.”
“He’s not going to come for me,” she insisted, trying to divert Gavin’s plan, or else Maddux would be walking right into an ambush. “I’m worth nothing to him.”
“Nice try,” he said, pacing in front of their two chairs. “I saw the interaction between the two of you when I was there for the welfare check. He certainly didn’t act as though he hated you, and you were very eager to stay with him. In fact, I’m betting he’s already fucked you, which is a shame because you really should have been mine, and now you’re just used goods.”
“I’ll never be yours,” she spat, her hatred toward Gavin at an all-time high.
“This is true, considering how tonight is going to end.” He lifted her phone, swiped open the screen, and scrolled through her contacts. “Ahh, here he is, under The Beast. How charming,” he said, sarcasm coating his words. “Now, let’s test that theory about whether or not Maddux will come to your rescue.”
“Arabella’s life for yours,” Gavin said out loud as he typed the words into a text message, his voice almost gleeful at the high of having what he believed was the upper hand. “What’s it going to be, Wilder?”
Less than fifteen seconds later, her phone rang, and Gavin looked at the display and smirked as he answered the call, put it on speakerphone, and spoke. “Well, that didn’t take long. I think maybe Arabella misjudged your affection for her. Her life for yours, Wilder. I think that’s a fair trade.”
“How about your life for hers, you son of a bitch!” Maddux’s deep, furious voice rang out like thunder. “I’m already on my way to your shitty hideout. I had a tracker put on Arabella’s phone, just in case something like this happened.”
“How resourceful,” Gavin drawled. “If you bring the cops with you, she dies before you even step foot inside the door.”
Arabella sucked in a sharp breath. Jesus, Gavin was truly insane, she thought, real fear settling in her bones.
“I’ll be alone,” Maddux bit out. “And if you fucking hurt her, you will die a slow, very painful death.”
Arabella’s heart was racing wildly in her chest, pumping panic through her veins, because she knew if Maddux arrived, he’d be nothing more than a dead man walking. That was Gavin’s entire plan.
“Don’t come here, Maddux,” she yelled out, loud enough for him to hear. “It’s a trap!”
Fury raged across Gavin’s features at her warning to Maddux, and he lifted the gun and pointed it right between her eyes, making her blood freeze in her veins at the thought of him pulling the trigger. “Shut the fuck up,” he shouted.
“Gavin, stop,” her father pleaded, his voice wheezing. “This is going too far!”
Ignoring Theodore, Gavin exhaled a deep breath, trying to regain his composure before speaking into the phone again. “Ten minutes, Wilder.
That’s all you’ve got before I start putting holes in your girl.”
He disconnected the call, and while he lowered the weapon, his dark, angry glare remained on Arabella.
She jutted out her chin, no longer caring if she irritated him or not. What did she have to lose? “You won’t get away with this, Gavin.”
“Ahhh, that’s where you’re wrong, Arabella,” he said, his dark, hatred-filled gaze focusing on her. “I’ve worked too fucking hard to get to where I am, and no one, not you, your father, or Maddux, is going to fuck it up for me. Which means tonight is all about eliminating anything and everything standing in my way . . . which is all three of you. And once you’re all dead, I’m going to burn this place down so there is nothing left except all of your ashes.”
Gavin’s rant was crazy and insane, but the most frightening thing of all was that Arabella believed every word he said.
Chapter 21
Maddux’s stomach rolled as he broke every speed limit in the vicinity to get to the address that had shown up on the tracker he’d installed on Arabella’s phone the first night she’d spent at his place. He hadn’t been worried about her escaping, not when she’d given herself up for her father’s debt so willingly. No, the added security had given him peace of mind as to her safety at all times. He didn’t trust Gavin and knew the possibility existed that he might try and kidnap Arabella out of spite and to piss Maddux off.
His instincts had been accurate on one account . . . Gavin had provoked him to the point of rage, and the fact that he was using Arabella as leverage to lure Maddux in only made him feel twice as violent toward the other man. Without any hesitation or doubts, Maddux would voluntarily sacrifice his life for Arabella’s . . . but he was determined to make sure they both walked out of this situation alive.
He tried not to think about the tumult of emotions tightening in his chest, the ones that told him that Arabella meant so much more to him than the revenge he’d sought the night of the fairy-tale ball. Somewhere along the way, this woman had managed to charm him with her wit and smiles and the way she’d let herself be vulnerable with him. She’d gained his respect with her loyalty and somehow eased the anger and resentment he’d carried in his soul the past fourteen years. And even though he’d believed it wasn’t possible, she’d thawed the ice around his heart and made him want more with her . . . yet there was so much turmoil between their families, not to mention that by tomorrow her father would be sitting in a jail cell, which Maddux would have played a large part of. He wasn’t sure Arabella would ever be able to forgive him for taking down the only parent she had left.
But none of that would matter if tonight went to shit, and not knowing what Gavin had planned, Maddux had to prepare himself for any and every possible scenario. As he turned into a low-income, drug-infested neighborhood, he forced himself to calm down, knowing if he rushed in with a hot head and a vicious temper, he wasn’t going to be able to think clearly and was liable to make stupid mistakes. He needed his wits about him to assess the situation and to make sure that nothing happened to Arabella.
That was his one and only concern—her safety—because if anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself, since he’d been the one to start this particular war. Once he’d ensured her freedom from this terrifying situation, then all hell could and would break loose. Reinforcement wasn’t far behind him. He’d given himself a good fifteen-minute lead before making the calls that would ensure he’d have backup, but Maddux knew how careful and judicious a SWAT team was when it came to a hostage situation, and he wasn’t in the mood to waste hours on a negotiation that probably wouldn’t happen anyway.
Arriving at the address, he parked his car in the driveway, got out of his vehicle, and made his way to the front door. The entire front of the house was pitch-dark, and the curtains were drawn across all the windows, which made it look as if no one was home. He rapped his knuckles three times on the door.
“It’s Maddux,” he said, and a few seconds later, a dim porch light flicked on, and the door opened, with Gavin greeting him with a gun pointed at his chest.
It took every ounce of control that Maddux possessed not to bum-rush Gavin like a fucking linebacker—there was no doubt in his mind he could overpower the other man when Maddux outweighed him in pure muscle by a good thirty pounds. But not knowing what the situation was inside the house, and with Gavin holding a deadly weapon, Maddux needed to be smart and precise about every move he made if he wanted to get himself and Arabella out of this alive.
“Nice to know that chivalry isn’t dead,” Gavin mocked, a twisted smile on his lips. “Now lift your shirt and turn around so I can make sure you’re not hiding any kind of weapon. Then pull up your pant legs, too.”
At least he was being thorough, Maddux thought, as he showed the other man what he wanted to see. He’d expected the search and had brought nothing with him weapon-wise . . . besides his bare hands and a brute strength Gavin was no match for.
Once Gavin was satisfied that Maddux was clean, he opened the door wider and motioned him inside. Keeping his pistol trained on Maddux from a few feet away, he turned off the porch light and relocked the front door.
“Maddux . . . no,” Arabella said, drawing his attention to the adjoining living room, where she and her father sat on two chairs with their hands and feet secured. “You shouldn’t have come. He has every intention of killing you and us.”
The sound of Arabella’s choked voice gripped Maddux, along with the fact that she’d been willing to risk her own life to save his with her warning that this was a trap. It took effort not to react to that fear and anguish in her voice, to reassure her that everything was going to be just fine. Right now, he needed every single bit of his concentration on Gavin and finding the right opportunity to take him down.
“I can’t say that Arabella is wrong. Unfortunately, none of you are walking out of here alive tonight.” Gavin nodded toward where Arabella and Theodore were tied up. “Come on over here, where I can keep a better eye on all of you until I decide whose life I want to end first.”
And shockingly, one of those lives he wanted to cut short included Theodore, and Maddux couldn’t help but wonder how the older man had landed himself on the receiving end of Gavin’s madness. At the moment, though, the hows and whys didn’t matter.
Crossing to the living room, Maddux deliberately positioned himself a few feet away from Arabella’s side, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her, because he knew if he looked into her eyes and witnessed her terror and despair for himself, it would gut him, and he couldn’t afford the distraction. He saw a bottle of whiskey on a nearby table, a quarter of its contents gone, and hoped Gavin had stupidly consumed the alcohol, which would make his reflexes not as sharp or precise.
“I’m here, just like you asked,” Maddux said evenly, keeping his gaze trained on Gavin and wanting the other man’s attention solely on him. “I’m the one you want, not Arabella. Let her go.”
Gavin laughed, though the sound lacked any humor. “News flash, Wilder. I’m not letting anyone go. Theodore and Arabella are nothing more than collateral damage, and you’re going to die, because with you no longer poking your nose where it doesn’t belong, Addingwell Financial will remain as it is.”
Maddux arched a sardonic brow. “A front for organized crime?”
“Yes,” Gavin admitted with a shrug. “And I’m thinking once my bosses find out that I’m the one who got rid of you, and your case against the organization falls apart without your deposition or testimony, there’ll be a nice promotion in it for me.”
“You’re crazy to think that’s how things will play out,” Theodore said, though his voice sounded weak and defeated.
Gavin swung the barrel of his gun toward the older man, a cruel smile on his lips, and Arabella made a small, desperate sound now that her father had grabbed Gavin’s attention. “Unfortunately, you won’t be around to see what happens or rat me out. And neither will Arabella. I’m not leaving anyt
hing to chance.”
Clearly irritated now, Gavin clenched his jaw. “So, who should be first to die? Such a hard decision.” He moved his pistol to Arabella, then glanced at Maddux, a malicious gleam in his eyes. “Then again, maybe not. You deserve to suffer, Wilder, and what’s worse than watching someone you care about die right before your eyes?”
A renewed rage pumped through Maddux at the reference Gavin was making, to the night he’d set the grease fire in his parents’ diner and Maddux had witnessed his parents’ deaths. It had been the single most excruciating thing he’d experienced in his life, and he knew that he wouldn’t survive the same fate with Arabella.
Maddux wasn’t going to take any chances with her life. Done with this fucker and his mind games, he made a split-second decision, and fueled by pure outrage, he rushed toward the other man. The surprise attack startled Gavin, and just as Maddux intended, the other man shifted his aim to him and pulled the trigger.
Maddux heard Arabella scream his name as an explosion of sound echoed in the room, and an excruciating, searing pain ripped through his right shoulder seconds before he tackled Gavin to the floor. He knew he’d been hit, but the adrenaline surging through his body masked the burn of flesh as he knocked the gun from Gavin’s grasp. The other man struggled, but he was no match for Maddux’s strength and weight as he secured his arm tight around Gavin’s neck in a choke hold until he finally passed out and went limp.
“Maddux,” Arabella said, a sob catching in her throat as she dropped to the floor next to him, though her hands and feet were still secured with the plastic ties. “Oh, my God, you’ve been shot!”
Rolling to his knees, he glanced down at the wet, red stain on his white shirt near his upper shoulder and winced at the agonizing, throbbing ache that was now making itself known. He wasn’t gushing blood, which meant a main artery hadn’t been severed, the wound wasn’t life-threatening, and once he got medical attention, he’d be good as new with a few stitches to add to the scars along his neck.